College Student Befuddled By Common Question
NEWARK, Del.—University of Delaware junior Jason O'Rourke became befuddled Saturday when faced with a seemingly simple and commonly asked question.
"'What do you do?' they asked," O'Rourke said to reporters. "I just stood their and stared. I had no idea what they were talking about."
The question was posed to O'Rourke at Cavaliers Country Club, where the 20-year-old Biology major had planned on enjoying a day of golf. Unable to secure friends from school to join him, O'Rourke decided to travel to the course by himself and see if the club house could match him up with other golfers who had arrived in incomplete groups.
"I was placed with three guys who seemed to be about my age—maybe a few years older," said O'Rourke. "They said they worked at a local investment firm. They didn't really go into detail about their specific jobs."
O'Rourke then continued, "Right before we got to the first tee, one of them—I think his name was Dave— said, 'So Jason, what do you do?' I was very confused, and after babbling nonsense for a few seconds, I started spouting of some golf rules. I thought maybe they were testing me to see if I really knew how to play the game."
"When I realized what he was really asking, I felt really stupid," said O'Rourke. "I told them I was a student and then stayed pretty much silent for the rest of the day."
Dr. Martin Weinberg, a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, explained that O'Rourke's situation, while indeed humorous, was far from unique.
"For working adults, 'What do you do?' is one of the mostly basic questions a person can ask, following logically from 'What's your name?' and 'Where are you from?'" said Dr. Weinberg.
"For college students," Weinberg continued, "Such neat categories don't really exist. Everyone is a student, and what a student does cannot be summed up with a single word. The question often, in fact, produces internal theoretical and existential questioning which students are unprepared or unwilling to answer. It's quite fascinating, really"
"What do I do?" O'Rourke rhetorically asked at a recent press conference. "What does anyone do?"
"I fight fires," responded a fire fighter.
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